Cahill anger over Gerry Adams’ ‘sick’ plan to publish cookbook
A WOMAN who claims that senior IRA figures covered up her rape and forced her to face her attacker has branded a planned cookbook from former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams “sick”.
Mairia Cahill, now an SDLP councillor, said that Mr Adams should withdraw plans to publish the book and apologise to victims “who are continually traumatised by the IRA and Sinn Fein”.
She said Sinn Fein claims that the “interests of abuse victims are paramount” but that its actions are often to the contrary.
During a talk at Feile an Phobail on Monday, Mr Adams revealed his plans to publish the cookbook, and said it would include some of the best-kept secrets of the talks that led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Ms Cahill said she was angry about the involvement of Padraic Wilson in the book. Ms Cahill has said she met the former IRA lead“Gerry er in the Maze Prison about her rape during Feile week in August 2000, and previously accused him of being one of the IRA members who helped to cover up her claims.
The man she accused of rape was later acquitted in court after Ms Cahill withdrew her evidence. Charges were dropped against those allegedly involved in the IRA’s internal inquiry.
The Lisburn and Castlereagh councillor said that the news regarding the release of the book has “caused maximum hurt to me as a victim”.
“Feile week is a particularly difficult time as it is the most raw in terms of memories of abuse,” Ms Cahill said.
Adams and Padraic Wilson should be well aware of this as I spoke about it not only in my court evidence, but also numerous times publicly.”
Ms Cahill said that both men’s involvement in the book was an insult to victims.
“I separately met with both Adams and Wilson for the first time regarding my abuse during Feile week in August 2000, at the tail end of two IRA investigations forced upon me in 1999 and 2000,” she said.
“Therefore, Adams’ recent tweet announcing a cookbook in which he states he has received help from Wilson, and whose smiling face appears on the cover, has caused maximum hurt to me as a victim.”
Ms Cahill was plunged into the spotlight in 2010 after she alleged that as a teenager she was raped by an IRA member in 1997.
She further claimed that the IRA conducted its own inquiry into her account, subjecting her to interrogation and forcing her to confront her alleged attacker.
Branding the planned publication “sick”, Ms Cahill said: “The only thing cooked up by Sinn Fein was how to deny the IRA’s role in the illegal investigation and cover-up of child sexual abuse in both jurisdictions in Ireland.”
Sinn Fein was contacted for comment, but didn’t respond.